It turns out while this part of Portugal has exceptional summers, it doesn't have the greatest winter weather.... how do we know? Well, other than the rain and gales for the past five days, the seagulls have also given up and settled in for January. Always a fair sign that it's going to be a bit diabolical for a while...

Still, we continue to amuse ourselves looking after the local dogs, baking various cake-related concoctions, and wandering to the beach / beach bars / various other beach related locations. The stainless chain for our bowsprit (ordered 28th December) is apparently, maybe, possibly arriving today. Potentially. That will allow us to test sail next week, IF the weather plays ball. Ah well, lesson learnt about sailing out of season.

Stay tuned.

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I know this is a few days late (courtesy of my iphone not syncing with the laptop), but happy new year to everyone - we hope you all had a great evening. Nazare got it's festive on and threw a great party evening for the few thousand that were here - the fireworks were pretty impressive as well.

Otherwise, not a lot going on around here. Found a beach bar...

 ... and watched the swell.

We're still waiting on the stainless chain for the bobstay (holds the bowsprint down) which is holding up test sailing. On top of that, we're out of season at the moment - a rare day crops up when it's possible to head south, but then four days follow of strong southerlies which impede our progress. Given we need a five day window to get to the Canaries, it's become somewhat of a waiting game. Ah well, it's still pretty mild for a north Atlantic winter, it doesn't rain that much and the other cruisers here in Nazare are great.

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Well, with the festive season rolling around again all the cruisers in Nazare got together for a Christmas Eve dinner in one of the surfer's storage lock-ups. Dirk's done a great job of turning the area into a place where surfers can hang out, and it made for an excellent setting for great food and plenty of mulled wine.

Christmas morning started with bacon and eggs aboard (plus an awesome Christmas cake slow cooked by Lauren) followed by a pretty leisurely day. Australia is 10.5hrs ahead of Portuguese time and with me calling home at 0700 and 0030, we pretty much hung about in our pj's and watched Christmas films.

After all that relaxing (and food), it was time to burn some calories on Boxing Day. First up, a visit to the local stray cats to a.) take care of the leftovers and b.) get Lauren her cat fix.

Next up was a cycle around the marina and then into town to stretch our legs a bit. All in all, a pretty easy kinda day.

New Year's Eve is fast approaching now and there's talk of a dinner then heading into town to watch the fireworks and find a drinking establishment. I managed to finish and fit the new instrument consoles but unfortunately the winds are conspiring against us getting out for a test sail (40kts or 2kts), so we're making plans to watch more big wave surfing this week and keeping an eye on the forecast.

PS - does anyone know why carp do this in a marina? Not only are they schooling, they also hang about on the surface with their mouths open, seemingly gulping air. It's got all of us beat.....

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